Lord Dunmore's War (1774) Virtual Heritage Trail

1. Fort Stanwix National Monument

First erected by British General John Stanwix between 1758 and 1762, Fort Stanwix is best known as the location where colonial rebels withstood a British offensive in 1777. The fort was later used as the base for several battles in the area and was destroyed by a fire in 1781. The National Park Service built the current fort as a historic site in the 1970s and offers a variety of programs as well as exhibits in the visitor's center.

2. Logan Massacre

Logan (also known as Tah-gah-jute) was a Cayuga and Mingo leader in the Ohio Valley in the 1770s. A well-known orator, Logan advocated for peaceful relations with encroaching white settlers. His pacific outlook was changed in the spring of 1774, when a party of white settlers massacred eight Indians at Baker's Tavern across from Yellow Creek. Among the dead were several members of Logan's family. The state highway marker here acknowledges this infamous episode. In response to his family's murder, Logan began a series of retributive raids against white frontier settlements, which helped ignite a wider Native-settler conflict known as Lord Dunmore's War. The Native Americans were defeated at the Battle of Point Pleasant in October 1774. Following the conflict, Logan gave a famous speech mourning his loss known as "Logan's Lament." Logan died in 1780.

3. Reverend John Corbley (1733-1803)

Throughout his remarkable life, John Corbley played a central role in shaping southeastern Pennsylvania history throughout the colonial, Revolutionary, and early Republican eras. Born in Ireland in 1773, Corbley immigrated to the colonies as an indentured servant. Joining the Baptist faith, Corbley moved to Garard's Fort, Pennsylvania and emerged as a devout Baptist preacher who helped establish congregations throughout the region. During the Revolution, Corbly proved a firm supporter of independence and assisted in quashing a planned Tory uprising in Greene County. Later in the Revolution, British-allied Native Americans raided Garard's Fort in 1782, killing many of John Corbly's family (known as the Corbly Family Massacre). Following U.S. independence, Corbly empathized with the plight of frontier farmers and supported the 1793 Whiskey Rebellion. Arrested for his role in the rebellion, he was eventually freed. In 1803, Corbley passed away. Today, several local markers commemorate John Corbley and the Corbley family's role within southeastern Pennsylvania history.

4. Battle of Point Pleasant

The only pitched battle of what came to be called "Lord Dunmore's War," this violent clash between Virginia colonists and Shawnee Indians in October 1774 ended in defeat for Chief Cornstalk's Shawnee war party after a bloody, day-long battle. Cornstalk had sought to defeat two forces of Virginians--one approaching from the east under Lord Dunmore, British governor of Virginia, and one from the south under militia General Andrew Lewis--before the colonists could unite their forces. His braves assaulted Lewis's encampment at the confluence of the Kanawha and Ohio rivers on the morning of October 10, but the hard-pressed colonials were able to rally and eventually drive off Cornstalk's men. When Lord Dunmore arrived in the region, tripling the size of the colonial army, the Shawnee were forced to accept humiliating terms in the Treaty of Camp Charlotte a few days later. The battle is commemorated by a large number of monuments and interpretive markers in Tu Endie Wei State Park, and annually during Point Pleasant Battle Days.

5. Lord Dunmore's War (1774) Historical Marker

This historical marker in Gallipolis commemorates Lord Dunmore’s War, a 1774 conflict between the colony of Virginia and the Native American tribes of the Ohio Valley. The Delaware, Mingo, and Shawnee contested colonial control of the region in a series of skirmishes that reached its climax in the Battle of Point Pleasant on Oct. 10, 1774. In this battle, Virginian soldiers under the command of Colonel Andrew Lewis fought the warriors of Shawnee Chief Cornstalk. The war ended with the agreement that the tribes would remain to the west of the Ohio River, an agreement that facilitated the further settlement of the region by European colonists but had devastating consequences for area's tribes. While some consider this conflict to be the first battle of the American Revolution, the battle is best understood as one of many battles where Native American tribes defended their territory but lacked the capacity to wage a prolonged war without access to supplies. As a result, native tribes often sought alliances with at least one European power.

6. The Treaty of Camp Charlotte (1774)

The Treaty of Camp Charlotte ended Lord Dunmore’s War under the conditions that the Shawnee would abandon their land south and east of the Ohio River and no longer attack British settlers traveling along the river. The war had started after the colonists moved onto land that the Iroquois ceded in 1768 but the Shawnee and Seneca-Cayuga still had the right to. A series of clashes turned into a war, ending after the Battle of Point Pleasant and the burning of several Shawnee villages. The treaty helped to ensure that peace remained among the Native Americans and settlers living around the Ohio River until around the American Revolution.

7. Fort Gower Historical Marker

In 1774, Lord Dunmore's War (named for Virginia's governor) broke out between Virginia colonists and Native American tribes in the Ohio River Valley. During Lord Dunmore's campaign against the Indians, Fort Gower was constructed at the junction of the Hocking and Ohio Rivers. The Native Americans were defeated at the Battle of Point Pleasant in October, and peace was negotiated via the Treaty of Camp Charlotte. On their return home, Virginia militia paused at Fort Gower, where they learned of the First Continental Congress' boycott against British goods. They passed a resolution, known as the Fort Gower Resolves, that declared their support for colonial interests and their willingness to use force to protect American liberties. A groundbreaking declaration, it proceeded the American Revolution by six months. A 1923 Daughters of the American Revolution tablet marks the Fort Gower site, as does a larger historical marker erected by the Southeast Ohio History Center.

Entries on This Tour

Lord Dunmore's War (1774) Virtual Heritage Trail

Description

Share